Usually, every Apple September event starts fairly predictably – either by showcasing how the Apple Watch saved lives, or by focusing on a few key features that have made Apple products great over the last year. This time, Apple did something rather unusual – it specifically highlighted a single era within its existence. Starting off with one of Steve Jobs’ most iconic quotes on design, the 1 and a half minute homage pays tribute to Apple’s Hardware and Software, highlighting the important role that design plays in the company’s ethos. The software portion predominantly focuses on Apple’s newly unveiled Liquid Glass interface… but the hardware portion reveals something more unusual.
The hardware section is almost entirely an homage to the Jobs/Ive era of design. Apple only released a few new product categories since Jony Ive departed the company in 2019 – the AirTag, the Watch Ultra, the AirPods Max, the HomePod Mini, the MagSafe charger, and the Vision Pro. Now, all of those designs featured in the homage… but the Vision Pro got practically zero fanfare. Heck, Apple even showcased MagSafe charging on the Mac (something it killed and then brought back), and went as far as to highlight the design of some iconic Apple Stores across the world. But the Vision Pro’s showcase was limited to a 1-second hyper-close-up shot of the crown. Nothing about the interface, nothing about EyeSight, nothing about hand tracking, no Spatial Computing, nothing. Confusing, no?
The homage is truly a trip down memory lane, and a brilliant insight into Apple’s deep design-driven approach. The video starts with a circle, showing every single area where Apple’s used the circle to its advantage – buttons, camera lenses, watch crowns, AirTags, even the MagSafe charging puck. The video then goes to the humble square, showing the Mac charger, the Mac Mini, buttons on the keyboard, the icons on the phone and laptop, even the Dynamic Island turning into a square depending on the active widget.
Moving on, the video shows how Apple’s design adopts the heart as meaningful iconography. It’s on the iPad’s notes app, on the Watch, in Messages. The capsule shape shows up in the Messages boxes too, as it does on the Watch button, the AirPods case rim, and more. The video goes on to play Apple’s greatest hits – MagSafe charging on the MacBook, MagSafe on the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, and the magnetic closure of the laptop lid, and the adherence of MagSafe accessories on the iPhone.
The architecture gets a shout-out too, which is unusual because Apple’s architecture isn’t really highlighted much anywhere, in keynotes, on its website, or even in documentation. However, Apple did take the time to celebrate some of its most noteworthy stores, like the Apple Store in Shanghai, the one in Abu Dhabi, Fifth Avenue New York, Marina Bay Sands Singapore, Bangkok, Istanbul, and its circular headquarters. This particular touch is unusual, since Apple rarely designs its own stores. Many stores are outsourced to architecture firms like Foster + Partners, which built quite a few of the iconic stores as well as the Cupertino HQ. Still, it shows that Apple controls the design vision even when it isn’t actively a part of the process.
That being said, I really expected a little more from this homage. Given exactly how much time, money, and effort Apple’s spent on the Vision Pro, its broader design goals of spatial computing, and just how influential its OS has been in crafting the liquid glass interface, the fact that the Vision Pro didn’t get any notable limelight in this homage seems odd. It makes me wonder whether the company’s really investing as much in the headset’s successor, which is due to launch sometime in the next 2 years.
For the true design nerds looking to understand exactly the profound role Jony Ive had on Apple’s design, there’s an entire book by Andrew Zuckerman and Jony Ive titled “Designed By Apple In California” that chronicles the legendary Chief Design Officer’s journey and process in his tenure at Apple. Ive stuck around at Apple for 8 more years after Steve Jobs passed, and it can be argued that only he understood Jobs’ broad design vision, keeping the fire burning at Apple even after Jobs’ demise in 2011. This small video at the beginning of the Apple keynote felt like a thank you note to both Jobs and Ive, for their ‘vision’… no pun intended.
The post Apple’s Intro Specifically Pays Tribute To The Jobs+Jony Ive Era Of Design (And ignores the Vision Pro) first appeared on Yanko Design.